In general production of castings, a casting mold with a cavity is created out of casting sand from a pattern made of wood, metal, etc., molten metal is poured in the cavity, and, after cooling, a cast product is taken out of the mold.
Making a wooden or metal pattern requires skill and expensive equipment. Such a pattern is expensive and heavy and, moreover, gives rise to a disposal problem and is therefore unsuited to the production of castings except mass-produced items. Because a mold of sand is prepared by hardening casting sand that is a mixture of common sand and a binder, sand reclamation is needed in reusing the sand. Sand reclamation is accompanied by generation of waste such as dust.
To address these problems, Applicant made a proposal in JP-A-2004-181472, in which a casting mold, etc. are formed of molded articles containing organic fiber, inorganic fiber, and a thermosetting resin. The molded article by the proposed technique is thinner, lighter, and more processable than conventional sand molds and involves no problem of waste generation. Depending on the design, some castings have complicated shapes and are required to achieve precision in detail. There has still been a demand for a molded article that can be applied to the manufacture of such castings.